Spain’s new government has announced plans to ban memes – only to face immediate mockery on social media.

The plan has been put before Congress in Spain by the new Popular Party administration of prime minister Mariano Rajoy.

The controversial regulations would see curbs on ‘spreading images that infringe the honour of a person’.

But minutes after the proposals were presented, Twitter users in Spain unleashed a deluge of memes poking fun at the prime minister and his government.

Spain’s new government has announced plans to ban memes – only to face immediate mockery on social media

Minutes after the proposals were presented, Twitter users in Spain unleashed a deluge of memes poking fun at the prime minister and his government. One showed the prime minister as the film character Edward Scissorhands

One showed Rajoy as an Ewok character from the movie Star Wars, another showed him as the film character Edward Scissorhands while one Twitter user imagined him as Russell Crowe’s Maximus in Gladiator.

Many of the memes were accompanied by the Twitter hashtag #SinMemesNoHayDemocracia meaning ‘there is no democracy without memes’.

According to The Local, the Popular Party want the measure included in its Citizens Security Law.

The legislation, introduced last year, has been branded a ‘gag law’ amid claims it will mean curbs on public protests and online activism.

Many of the memes were accompanied by the Twitter hashtag #SinMemesNoHayDemocracia meaning ‘there is no democracy without memes’

The legislation, introduced last year, has been branded a ‘gag law’ amid claims it will mean curbs on public protests and online activism

Campaigners slammed the latest proposal calling it a threat to freedom of expression.

Carlos Sánchez Almeida from the Platform in Defence of Freedom of Information is quoted by The Local as saying: ‘If the intent is to pursue those who publish images without consent then an act as widespread as sharing political criticism in the form of memes becomes a risky activity.’

However, there are already reports that the plan will fail to make it through Congress where the party does not have a majority.

Spain took 10 months to establish a government after two inconclusive general elections and several unsuccessful attempts to form a coalition in a country where the traditional bi-party system was shattered by new political parties that rose to appeal to a recession-battered electorate.

Rajoy (pictured) received parliamentary approval for a second term on October 29 thanks to the support of opposition newcomer Ciudadanos’s 32 votes, but has the weakest mandate in Spain’s modern history

Rajoy received parliamentary approval for a second term on October 29 thanks to the support of opposition newcomer Ciudadanos’s 32 votes, but has the weakest mandate in Spain’s modern history.

He is seven votes short of an absolute majority in the 350-strong Congress, meaning he must scrabble for approval from other opposition parties to push legislation through parliament.

This is a far cry from Rajoy’s previous term where he easily passed laws thanks to an absolute majority.